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JAPAN
Feb 24, 2006

Japan rebuts Russia protest over Aso's isles remarks

Tokyo told Moscow on Thursday that it finds "unacceptable" the Russian Foreign Ministry protest over Foreign Minister Taro Aso's recent remarks on the disputed Russian-held islands off Hokkaido, Japanese officials said.
BUSINESS
Feb 24, 2006

January records first trade deficit in five years

Japan posted a customs-cleared trade deficit of 348.9 billion yen in January, the first monthly deficit in five years and the largest in 23 years, the Finance Ministry said Thursday.
EDITORIALS
Feb 23, 2006

Race is on at the United Nations

The race to succeed Mr. Kofi Annan as the next U.N. secretary general has begun. The job is one of the most high-profile in the world, and one of the most thankless. For all its prestige, the United Nations is a dumping ground for many of the world's most intractable concerns. The secretary general must...
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2006

'Takeshima Day,' rhetoric just Shimane affair

MATSUE, Shimane Pref. -- Shimane Prefecture on Wednesday celebrated its first "Takeshima Day" by declaring that the tiny islets controlled by South Korea are part of Japan and calling on the government to pressure Seoul to hand them over.
BUSINESS
Feb 23, 2006

Moderate dropped from recovery plug

The government Wednesday upgraded its assessment of the economy for the first time in six months as rising production and exports as well as solid consumption provided yet more evidence the nation has entered a period of sustainable growth.
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2006

Secret deal on ODA authority denied

The Foreign and Finance ministries did not secretly agree to protect their vested interests in official development assistance amid ODA reforms, a Foreign Ministry official said Wednesday, denying a newspaper report.
EDITORIALS
Feb 20, 2006

Travails of Mr. Thaksin

Thailand's prime minister, Mr. Thaksin Shinawatra, is a survivor. Since taking office five years ago, he has weathered allegations of corruption and malfeasance, charges of nepotism, an insurgency in Thailand's southern provinces and even a public rebuke by the king. Yet, he has bested every challenge...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Feb 20, 2006

Japan's falling savings rate reflects a global competition for funds

The national savings rate dropped to as low as 2.8 percent in 2004, according to a report released by the Cabinet Office last month. This is incredibly low, given the figure had been above 10 percent until as recently as 1999.
JAPAN
Feb 19, 2006

Bill would boost CFC collection

The Environment Ministry has compiled a bill aimed at boosting the collection of chlorofluorocarbons used as coolants in business appliances, officials said Saturday.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2006

LDP calls immigration bill too lax

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party's judicial panel refused Friday to endorse a government draft bill to tighten the immigration law by fingerprinting foreigners upon their arrival in Japan, saying the law needs to be further strengthened to fight terrorism, party members said.
BUSINESS
Feb 18, 2006

Economy grew 5.5% in quarter

The economy grew at a robust annualized rate of 5.5 percent in real terms in the October-December period for the fourth-straight quarter of growth, the Cabinet Office said Friday.
BUSINESS
Feb 17, 2006

State eyes selling prime property

Surrounded by Izumi Garden Tower, the Saudi Arabian Embassy and luxury condominium complexes in Tokyo's Roppongi district, an ugly old apartment block stands.
EDITORIALS
Feb 16, 2006

Help for loan victims

The Supreme Court has made a ruling helpful to those who have borrowed money from consumer and "shoko" (industry and commerce) loan firms -- which lend operating funds to small companies -- as well as from illegal loan sharks. The ruling will affect the practice of having borrowers pay interest rates...
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2006

LDP's Ito had IRCJ meet tender favor-seeking Huser

Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Kosuke Ito asked a senior official of the state-backed corporate bailout agency last June to meet the head of a property developer now accused of selling structurally unsound condominiums, according to sources.
JAPAN
Feb 15, 2006

Bill in works for arriving foreigners' fingerprints to go on state database

The government has drawn up a bill requiring foreigners aged 16 and older to register their fingerprints in a government database when entering Japan as part of its campaign against terrorism, government sources said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2006

Komeito puts kibosh on defense ministry

The government may give up on submitting a bill to upgrade the Defense Agency into a ministry during the current Diet session, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi indicated Monday.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2006

Abe swings back at comment by Chinese official

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe criticized a high-ranking Chinese official Thursday by calling his reported remarks about Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi "inappropriate" for someone of his political status.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2006

Abe denies secret pact for Okinawa

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe on Thursday denied a news report that Japan had secretly shouldered $4 million in costs for Okinawa's reversion to Japan from U.S. occupation in 1972.
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2006

Koizumi puts bill for female succession on back burner

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe backed off Wednesday from their earlier pledge to quickly get a bill passed that would allow a female on the Chrysanthemum Throne.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 9, 2006

Battling to win the hearts of Taiwanese

SINGAPORE -- As flights cross the Taiwan Strait at the start of the Year of the Dog, hopes have been high for a possible rapprochement in ties between Beijing and Taipei. But observers are split on whether to expect "a new spring" or renewed tensions across the strait in the next two years before Chen...
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2006

Japan wants in on U.S. nuke plan

Japan has offered to cooperate in a recently announced U.S. program to expand nuclear power in the United States and other countries, while ensuring the safety of fuel and waste, sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2006

Koizumi skips disputed-isle rally

An annual rally calling on Moscow to return the islands it seized off Hokkaido at the end of World War II was held Tuesday in Tokyo with government officials, lawmakers and former islanders in attendance.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2006

Abe wants North 'political decision' on abductions

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe Monday urged North Korea to change its stance on the dispute over its agents' abductions of Japanese citizens and called for a "political decision" by Pyongyang after the two countries failed to make progress on the issue in Sunday's talks.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2006

Wiretaps led to 18 arrests in 2005

Police conducted authorized wiretaps in one murder case and four drug cases leading to 18 arrests in 2005, Justice Minister Seiken Sugiura told a Cabinet meeting Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2006

Tokyo to leverage whole talks on abduction issue

In a move to pressure North Korea a day before bilateral talks between Tokyo and Pyongyang are to start in Beijing, Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Friday that Tokyo may consider abandoning the three-track talks on security, abduction and normalization if there is no progress on the abduction issue.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2006

Pro-Pyongyang groups set for tax scrutiny

The government will urge municipalities that provide tax breaks for pro-North Korean group facilities to consider whether such preferential treatment is appropriate, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said Friday.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past